ISRO crosses first hurdle, carries out crew capsule air-drop test for Gaganyaan flight

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday successfully accomplished the first integrated air drop test (IADT-01) for end-to-end demonstration of parachute-based deceleration system for the Gaganyaan mission.

“This test is a joint effort of ISRO, the Indian Air Force, DRDO, Navy and the Indian Coast Guard,” ISRO said.

On August 21, the ISRO Chairman, Dr V Narayanan, had said the upcoming test for the Gaganyaan mission included an integrated air drop test which involved dropping the crew capsule from an altitude of approximately 3.5 to 4 km using a helicopter.

The test is crucial for the smooth safe landing of the crew to earth from space. ISRO had developed this as part of pre-project activities of the human spaceflight project well before the official Gaganyaan project was approved in 2019.

In May 2023, ISRO received the crew module structure simulated assembly for the Integrated Air-Drop Test meant for validating the sequence and performance of parachute systems in the Gaganyaan mission. The module was designed by the Human Space Flight Centre, ISRO.

The Department of Space has constituted a high-level review committee to closely monitor the progress of the activities leading to the launch of India’s human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan.

“Flight integration activities for various propulsion stages of the HLVM3 launch vehicle have been completed and the launch campaign commenced. Currently, crew module and service module mechanical and electrical integration activities are underway. Further, integration of orbital module and thermovac tests, dynamic and acoustic tests and launch complex activities such as propellant filling and integrated checks are to be completed,” ISRO officials said.

Recently, the government told a parliamentary panel that private enterprises were contributing enormously to the human space programme. The Centre, in its report, said most of the hardware for the Gaganyaan programme was being realised through the Indian industry. These included motor cases, propellant tanks, engines, structures, realisation of various subsystems of indigenous environment control and life support system, avionics packages, simulated crew module, crew module recovery models and virtual reality-based training simulators.